Editor's Notebook

Samantha Brown Takes on Myrtle Beach

August 6, 2008

I'm one of two people in the office who really enjoy the work of the Travel Channel's slightly ditzy Samantha Brown (Kristen Armstrong is the other). Monday night, the intrepid traveler took one of her weekend trips, to my ol' stomping grounds of Myrtle Beach, S.C.

She had three days (Friday-to-Sunday) to come up with fun times.

As Brown noted, in addition to the beach itself, Myrtle Beach is best known for two things: bikers, of the motorcycle variety, and golf. (And strip clubs, but she was sensitive enough to avoid mentioning that.)

Now, Samantha Brown at Bike Week would have been a hoot. I lived through a number of those back in my time there. Seems like, in recent years, the town poobahs have tried to shoo away as many bikers as they can.

But we had no bikers in this TV program. Instead, we got Sam looking for crabs, playing miniature golf and learning to shag - the vertical kind, not the horizontal kind. (North Myrtle Beach, in addition to being home to Vanna White, is the birthplace of the Shag dance.)

My reaction to her new series of shows highlighting weekend getaways is that they're not as enjoyable as Brown's usual work. In fact, the Myrtle Beach one was downright bland.

Sorry, Samantha, I luv ya, but it had to be said.

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